Elementary: On the Line (2x09)

I'm falling behind on these things! This one's going to be a quick one, my apologies. This week on Elementary, we're pulling back from the crazy Mycroft-related shenanigans of the last two episodes and getting more of your typical case-of-the-week. However, as is often the case with this show, they found a way to keep it fresh and interesting.

The episode starts with our victim, Samantha Wabash, faking her own murder. She shoots herself with a gun tied to a weight that then fell into the water while she fell back from the railing of a bridge and onto the ground. Sherlock immediately figures out that it was an elaborate suicide, and they put together that she was trying to frame a man for her death. When Sherlock sees this man, however, he realizes that he should have allowed Samantha to frame him. Sherlock is fairly certain that this man is a serial killer. Lucas Bundsch was a suspect in Samantha's sister's murder years ago, but he was never linked to the crime.

Sherlock and Joan are now on a mission to catch a serial killer who has managed to keep himself out of trouble for years. It takes quite a while, but eventually they manage to find where he keeps his victims before he kills them. The murderer is aprehended. Along the way, Sherlock and Joan's process is impeded by the cop who worked Samantha's sister's case years back. Sherlock thinks he's an incompetent moron, and makes no secret of it. That of course makes it rather difficult to work with the man. Joan expresses her annoyance at Sherlock's behavior, telling him that he needs to try and be nicer, because it could ultimately help them with their cases. Sherlock tells Joan that he makes a special effort to be nice to her because he finds her to be exceptional, but he is not, as a rule, a nice person, and she shouldn't expect him to change.

For all that this was a basic case-of-the-week, I found myself really enjoying it. The Lucas Bundsch character was pretty intimidating actually, and he seemed like a worthy adversary for the great Sherlock Holmes. So worthy, in fact, that I sort of wish he could have been a recurring villain. Regardless, I liked seeing Sherlock use his wits to defeat him. One of the best moments in the episode is when Bundsch comes to the brownstone to talk to Sherlock. We see that he has a knife, but he never uses it. The entire scene is very tense, and I thought they did a good job of maintaining the suspense.

The stuff about Sherlock being nice was also okay, although I did feel like we've sort of already covered this topic in the past. As always, it's nice to see Sherlock be open about his relationship with Joan, willing to tell her that he puts in a special effort with her. I suppose that while some of this did feel repetitive, I'm still glad to see their relationship as the focal point of the show.

So, yeah! As promised, this is a short one. Nothing extraordinary happening here, but nothing bad to report, either.

8/10